Yale study: Syrian refugees show resilience, based in community ties

Community ties, access to education both help

Published 1:25 pm, Thursday, June 15, 2017

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Syrian refugees walk near the Azraq Refugee Camp where the U.N. refugee agency inaugurated a solar power plant, in Jordan’Äôs northern desert, May 17, 2017. The agency said the plant, funded by a foundation of the global home furnishings company Ikea, makes Azraq the world’s first refugee camp powered by renewable energy and saves $1.5 million a year in electricity costs.
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Syrian refugees walk near the Azraq Refugee Camp where the U.N. refugee agency inaugurated a solar power plant, in Jordan’Äôs northern desert, May 17, 2017. The agency said the plant, funded by ... more

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Yale study: Syrian refugees show resilience, based in community ties

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NEW HAVEN >> Young Syrian refugees show a high level of resilience, according to a survey tool developed by researchers at Yale University and counterparts in other countries, but the Syrians’ ability to withstand the trauma of their 6-year-old civil war relies much more on their community than in their individual strength.

That is one conclusion of research by Catherine Panter-Brick, professor of anthropology and global affairs at Yale and the study’s lead author. Her fellow researchers are from universities and research centers in Canada, Jordan and the United Kingdom.

“Whereas in the West people think of resilience as personal strength and control over the environment … in the Arab world, within the region, resilience is interpersonal and community strength,” Panter-Brick said Thursday.

“You could suffer from a lot of insecurity and mental health difficulties, but you could have a strong family or strong faith or strong hopes and that could be a very important dimension of resilience, an important aspect of resilience,” she said.

Panter-Brick based her conclusions on a brief survey, a tool that has been used three times to measure resilience of Syrian refugees living in northern Jordan among the local populace and not in refugee camps.

More than 650,000 displaced Syrians are now living in the northern part of Jordan, which lies to the south of Syria. More than 5 million Syrians have fled the civil war in all, many to Europe and the United States.

“The Syrian refugees average about six very adverse toxic effects in their past,” Panter-Brick said. They include “having encounters with grief, losing their home, interrupting their education … and not having medical care.”

“Despite these adverse events they exhibit remarkably high levels of resilience in both boys and girls,” she said.

The researchers compared the refugees’ outlook with “Jordanians in the community who were living with their families in urban centers in Jordan, side by side with the refugees,” Panter-Brick said. The Syrians and Jordanians “share the same faith, the same background, the same ethnicity,” she said.

The survey, called the Child and Youth Resilience Measure, asked the refugees to rate 12 statements, including, “I have opportunities to develop and improve myself for the future,” “my family stands by me in difficult times” and “education is important to me,” according to a press release. Each question was rated on a five-point scale from “not at all” to “a lot.” Researchers interviewed 603 11- to 18-year-old boys and girls, including refugees and non-refugees, living in five towns near the Syrian-Jordanian border, according to the release. Panter-Brick said the survey will be conducted in Germany as well.

The research found that “you may suffer but you have hopes,” Panter-Brick said. “As long as you have strong hope, you may be resilient, even though you suffer.

“Hopes for the future are very important for resilience. Your dreams are very important for resilience, and for those refugees in particular, education is very important,” she said.

She said Syrian refugees take “a slightly more expanded concept” of resilience. “It’s more of a holistic view of a person in the social environment. … We tend to think it’s in the mind. I think they see it as social life as well.”

“This new survey tool measures an important aspect of well-being, one that examines positive strength, rather than vulnerability and difficulties,” said co-author and team leader Rana Dajani, professor at the Hashemite University in Jordan, in the release. “It will help humanitarian organizations evaluate their programs for young people and their families.”

There were differences between the two groups — Jordanians relied more on role models while the Syrian refugees gained resilience from overcoming their trauma, feeling resettled and having access to education, the release said. For both groups, family relationships were more important than those with peers, according to the release.